Trust, Transparency and Value — How Google Is Working to Improve Online Advertising for Everyone

Digital advertising has played an important role in making the internet the free, open, vital place it is today. Many of the things we all enjoy — websites, blogs, social networks, apps and videos — are funded by ads. Advertising helps reduce the digital divide, empowers creative voices and spurs global economic opportunity.

Yet, it’s no revelation that the ads ecosystem has had its share of challenges over the past few years. We’ve all seen the signs: consumers who are frustrated with slow experiences and a rise in disruptive and deceptive ads; advertisers that felt the ads ecosystem was increasingly complex and sometimes not brand-safe; publishers struggling to balance financial pressures and the consumer experience. In recent years, Google has redoubled its efforts to improve the ads ecosystem. And we aren’t alone. We’re also working with publishers, agencies, advertisers and industry bodies that are committed to working together to improve global standards for online advertising.

In our eyes, a healthy ads ecosystem — one that works for consumers, advertisers and publishers — must be:

Transparent. Everyone involved should know what’s happening and be able to make meaningful choices about it. Consumers should expect to know what information is collected, and have tools available to secure and control their privacy online.

Trustworthy. Everyone should be able to trust their ads experiences. Advertisers, in particular, should be able to see where ads are shown and control the types of placements that are appropriate for their brand.

Valuable. Everyone should feel they receive a fair value exchange. Consumers should get relevant and useful ad experiences; publishers should be rewarded for quality content; and advertisers should be seen by real people, with impactful placements on appropriate sites and apps.

Together, these characteristics create an ads ecosystem that everyone contributes to and everyone benefits from. Here are a few highlights of the steps we’ve taken over the past year to help strengthen the ecosystem:

Google is now working with more than 150 expert groups — including NGOs, government organizations and academics — to help us better understand and identify questionable or sensitive content.

Google ad products now use over 180 filters to detect and remove invalid and fraudulent traffic.

We now automatically remove policy violations across the Google Display Network for hate, violence and porn content, filtering 700 million ad queries each day.

On YouTube, we’ve implemented new thresholds for advertising; channels now must meet a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months to be eligible for advertising. YouTube also features several other improvements; for instance, automated detection of predatory comments on YouTube has improved by 4X just since November 2017.

We’re on pace to hit our target of 10,000 employees working on content review and enforcement across Google by the end of 2018.

Does this mean the job is complete? Of course not. But we believe these efforts are making a material, positive difference. We’re committed to a continuous, open dialogue, and a partnership with all our stakeholders and users that includes greater visibility into our priorities and our progress.

We’ll continue to work hard to ensure that consumers, advertisers and publishers can thrive in an ecosystem built on transparency, trust and value — one that continues to make the internet the vital place we all want it to be.